Set each index in the array at the beginning (or before the $output
array is used) would probably be the easiest solution for your case.
Example
$output['admin_link'] = ""
$output['alternate_title'] = ""
$output['access_info'] = ""
$output['description'] = ""
$output['url'] = ""
Also not really relevant for your case but where you said you were new to PHP and this is not really immediately obvious isset()
can take multiple arguments. So in stead of this:
if(isset($var1) && isset($var2) && isset($var3) ...){
// all are set
}
You can do:
if(isset($var1, $var2, $var3)){
// all are set
}